Vikas Sahayog Pratishthan Vikas Sahayog Pratishthan (means Development Collaboration Foundation) is a collective of 15 grassroots organizations and individuals

that are primarily working on the developmental issues of the poor and deprived sections of society in Maharashtra State. Livelihood and dignity are the basic concern of deprived communities thus VSP and its members are working with a long term perspective to qualitatively expand and deepen the political and socio-economic space for the marginalized communities. The constituent members are working with different communities from Tribal, Dalit, Nomads, De-notified tribes, landless farmers, marginal landholders, agricultural laborers and other such group. Therefore the initiatives have been taken to help deprived communities to develop productivity of natural and human resources for better livelihood as well as asserting civil rights enshrined in constitution of India. VSP has been working on the Natural resources and Gender in a networking mode. The policy related matters were addressed through advocacy and alliances similarly the constructive experiments related to Nature Farming, Water Conservation, promoting role of women and youth in village governance, and developing Cooperatives. VSP has the competency to work with voluntary organizations; community base organizations such as cooperatives, self help groups of farmers, youths, women; local self government authorities; and the policy influencers such as academicians, journalists. The area of expertise of the organization in terms of content area is nature farming, cooperatives, and village governance. In terms of services the expertise in information dissemination, training, lobbying, policy advocacy etc. VSP has been working with various support organizations and part of different networks operating at local, national and international level. It is a value based collective upholding the principles of transparency, accountability, participatory working and decentralized decision-making. The actions are planned out in consultations with members and their participation is sought in implementation and reviewing the activities. The key action areas are as follows: Information Collection and Dissemination Facilitation of Exchange and Solidarity Networking and Alliance building Training and Perspective Development Lobbying, Advocacy with Policy Markers Experiments towards Sustainable Alternatives

Project Activities

Volunteering At Pratibimb14 Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan year on year takes part in the exhibition Pratibimb which is organized by Rangoonwala Foundation India Trust. Pratibimb is an ideal collaborative platform for increasing awareness about the social efforts and initiatives undertaken by Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan. It is a perfect marketing route to connect with the new breed of consumers, donors, citizens and organizations. Pratibimb-2014 had active participation of Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan. This event was conducted on large magnitudes, as some of the other prominent organizations such as SEWA, Anjali, Hellen Keller Foundation, Clarke School, Dastkar had also participated in the same. The network organizations of Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan that had taken part in this exhibition were

Sneh Smruddhi Mandal, Devrukh Nehru Yuva Mandal, Buldhana Sanvad, Chiplun

Shramik Sahyog, Chiplun

Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan

Savitribai Phule Mahila Mandal, Deulgaon Sakharcha

Yuva Rural Association, Akola

The products that these organizations had brought forward for the customers in Mumbai belonged to following categories

Grains and Pulses

Spices

Papad

Ayurvedic Medicines

Healthy products :Honey, cashew nuts , Amsul etc

Devices using ecofriendly technology such as Solar Lamps

In this exhibition spanning over four days, the numerous Bachat Gats that were the beneficiaries of these network organizations were able to earn significant margins. The response from their side was that their sales went up by 40%, as compared to what they are in the local markets. In a broader perspective, this exhibition was a platform for these Bachat Gats to understand the markets and consumer trends in Mumbai. They got the first hand experience of the consumer behaviour, and they could also observe and analyse the products brought forward by other organizations from Maharashtra as well as other states of India. This would be useful for them in a sense that, theyll have a better grasp of different markets and more ideas for the products.

Key observations and suggestions Some of the products involved, such as organic turmeric, honey etc., had good appeal for customers. The customers were interested in it, and with proper steps taken, these products can be pushed more. The packaging in terms of design and quantity both is an important factor to be considered. The Papad products by Sneha Samruddhi Mitra Mandal had a better and attractive packaging as compared to those of some of the others, and trend was that their sales were accordingly a little higher. Having brief mandatory information about the product included in the packaging is also to be considered. Also, for example, Amsul was being sold at Rs. 40/- per 250 grams packs. This price point was

a bit higher as compared to the price points of surrounding items. Repacking Amsul in smaller SKUs and adjusting the prices accordingly would perhaps have increased its sales. Some analyses needs to take place in this direction. The stall selling honey did provide sample for tasting on the first day. This enables the customer to know more about the product and pushes them to buy it. This tasting sample method could be replicated in case of other products, wherever economically feasible. Options need to be looked at for product diversification. In markets such as Mumbai, the products with higher chance of commercial success include Dresses, simple daily-wear jewellery etc. The feasibility of producing and selling such items by our network organizations should be checked. The visibility of the VSP stalls was one area of potential improvement. The location of the stall with respect to the hall was not in our hands, but within and around the stalls options could be explored to increase the visibility. Ideally, when anyone walks in to the hall should mentally register VSP stalls for better success. This could be achieved with help of banners, standees etc. The Bachat Gat representatives at times faced difficulties in communicating with the customers. Ease of communication could be facilitated, either by giving them training or delegating this responsibility to able personnel. The maintenance of sales records needs to be made a bit more formal, or professional.

This platform has always been excellent for small entrepreneurs from villages in various parts of the country. With every year, there will definitely be more and more learning and the success of this activity will be getting better and better. For Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan, for the network organizations, and for other organizations which share the same cause with us.

Website Creation VSP has a well built website http://www.vspindia.org/Home.aspx but VSP did not have a blog website. During my three weeks of internship at VSP, I designed and developed bol website for VSP using my previous IT industry experience. This will allow VSP engage their stakeholders more and spread awareness about their work through various posts in blogs. VSP can also upload various multimedia information like videos, images, presentations on blog. So this will provide an platform to VSP to connect to new and existing audience in a better way.

Case Stories translation VSP runs various social programs at different villages. As VSP is an collective organisation of 27 grassroots organisations, every small organisation working at some remote village has various experiences that they get through their programs. These organisations write stories about their experiences in a native language which is Marathi for villages in Maharashtra. As Marathi being my mother tongue, during my internship, I helped VSP translate all these case studies to English from Marathi. In all, I translated 9 case studies which can now reach to bigger audience. One of the case stories that I translated in English nominated for an award in Meljol organisation. Drafting post Pratibimb mails Stakeholders and creating email distribution lists One of the main tasks at VSP is to keep all the stakeholders engaged in the activities of VSP. So after Pratibimb , it was important that VSP communicates with stakeholders and keep them updated about what happened in Pratibimb and what are the future plans of VSP. I was assigned to do this job on behalf of VSP. I created the different email distribution list in outlook to ease the process of sending bulk mails and drafted the response mail for stakeholders on behalf of VSP.

Visit to Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan(BMMA) Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan was inaugurated in January 2007 as a mass organization of muslim women from across the country to become an alternative progressive voice of the community to raise their socio-political and economic concerns. What makes this historical fact even more significant is that this voice is a feminine voice. It is a movement for the rights of Muslims in Indian democracy led by muslim women. . The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan is emerging as an alternative progressive voice of the community which fights for the citizenship rights of the muslims emanating from the Constitution. It believes in building alliances with other excluded groups towards a united struggle of the people.